


Second Sunrise

by misura



Category: Chronicles of Narnia - C. S. Lewis
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Book: The Last Battle (Narnia), M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-03
Updated: 2019-03-03
Packaged: 2019-11-08 16:28:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,233
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17984627
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/misura/pseuds/misura
Summary: How the last king of Narnia was saved by a Calormene boy, and how the both of them saved Narnia, with a little bit of help.





	Second Sunrise

**Author's Note:**

  * For [aurilly](https://archiveofourown.org/users/aurilly/gifts).



Of Harpa Tarkaan's seven sons, three had wed and were living in different cities, three had gone off to fight in the wars, and one, being too young to be a soldier, had stayed home. His name was Emeth.

At first, Emeth had been rather unhappy to have been left behind, but as the war lasted a great deal longer than anyone in Calormen had expected, given that Narnia was so small and the Calormene empire so large, he began to cheer up.

"Soon enough," he told himself, "I will be as old as my brothers were when they left, and then surely, I will be allowed to become a soldier as well, and find much glory and honor in battle, and see all of the wonders of Narnia that I have heard so much about."

Alas, Emeth's wish did not come true, for three months before his next birthday, there was a great battle, which the Calormenes won, and afterwards, they declared that they had as good as won the war, because a great many Narnians had lost their lives in it, and one of them had been Tirian, the last king of Narnia.

(Of course, if you know your history, you know that Tirian was not dead at all. And if you do not, then I am happy tell you that Tirian was still very much alive after this battle, though if you want to know the why and how of it, you will need to have a little patience.)

Though Emeth was unhappy that he would not achieve his dream, he comforted himself with the knowledge that very soon, his brothers would be coming home. For surely, if he could not go to Narnia himself, hearing the stories of those who had would be almost as good.

 

Emeth's parents, meanwhile, were getting quite worried. They had seen a great many soldiers return home already, and each morning, they would send a servant to the gates of Tehishbaan, so that when Emeth's brothers came, they might find a very hearty welcome.

But although a great many soldiers arrived through the gates each day, none of them were Emeth's brothers.

"Perhaps the Tisroc (may he live forever) has been so impressed by their courage in battle that he has invited them to his palace in Tashbaan," said Harpa Tarkaan to his wife, on the day their neighbor's two sons came home safe and sound.

"Perhaps they have won so much glory that the Tisroc (may he live forever) has granted them a piece of land in Narnia, and they need to make arrangements before they can come home," Harpa Tarkaan's wife told her husband, on the day their other neighbor's son arrived.

Neither of them very much believed what they were saying.

"Perhaps," Harpa Tarkaan said, on the day when there had been no soldiers at the gates at all, "they have been injured and are therefore slow in coming."

On the day after that one, though, a soldier neither of them had ever seen before came to their house, and as soon as they opened the door, they saw that in his hand, there were three small bags of coins, and they knew that they would never again see their sons, for they were dead.

The small bags were called 'the wages of war', and they were given to the families of soldiers who had lost their lives, to comfort them. I hope I need not tell you that very few people were comforted at all, any more than Emeth's parents were.

 

Emeth, meanwhile, knew nothing of this. He only knew that tomorrow morning, he would be old enough to be a soldier, and he lay awake all night, thinking of all the things he would have liked to do, had he been allowed to go with his brothers to Narnia.

In Emeth's fantasies, no-one ever died, for even though he fought mighty battles against fearsome opponents, in the end, he and his enemies always shook hands and paid each other the nicest compliments. Sometimes, they would also promise one another to become the best of friends, once the war was over.

When Emeth woke, he knew it was his birthday, and that there would be a gift waiting for him at breakfast. Last year, the gift had been a horse, and the year before that, several books.

This year, when he walked into the kitchen, he saw no gift at all, and he felt a stab of disappointment.

"Most excellent of sons," said his father, "you are now of an age to know your own mind. And so, rather than have us choose you a gift, your mother and I had taken it in our mind that you might go to the marketplace to-day and choose for yourself something that pleases you." And he handed Emeth a middle-sized bag of coins.

(Now, you and I know where those coins came from, but Emeth did not. And so I hope you will not think too poorly of him when I say that he was very excited and pleased at the idea of being considered old enough to be entrusted with the money to buy his own gift.)

 

Upon winning the war, the Calormene soldiers had taken a great many things with them. However, as soldiers were not merchants, the Tisroc had decreed that all the loot and prisoners would be divided among the Calormene merchants to sell.

The merchants would then pay some of the money they made to the Tisroc, who would divide it among his soldiers, and so everyone would be the richer and the happier for it.

In Tehishbaan, there were a great many merchants, and all of them had tried to obtain the finest looking loot and the strongest looking prisoners. The richest merchants did not at all mind paying a bit of money for the privilege of getting first pick, while the poorest were left with the prospect of not making very much money at all.

When Emeth came to the marketplace, the first stalls he encountered were those belonging to the rich merchants. There were Talking Dogs, though few were more than pups, and Talking Horses, though none of them spoke very much and Emeth did not like to see that several of them had been whipped severely. There were slaves, though Emeth did not look at these at all.

There were stalls with the most beautifully crafted Narnian weapons and jewelry, and here Emeth lingered quite a while, for it seemed to him a very fine thing to own a Narnian sword, or to gift his favorite sister with a pair of Narnian earrings.

However, then he thought of his brothers coming home with swords and earrings of their own, fairly won in fair battle, and suddenly it seemed not so fine a thing at all, and he moved on to the next stall.

By now, it was nearing the end of the afternoon, and Emeth had reached the part of the market where the stalls looked not so very impressive or glittery. And here it was that he saw a Narnian boy his own age, badly beaten and barely alive, being offered for sale as a slave.

 

If you know how stories work at all, you may have guessed already that this boy was Tirian, the last king of Narnia, who was not nearly as dead as the Tisroc had made him out to be.

When I mentioned Tirian earlier, I promised to tell you the how and why of his survival, and so now I will.

In the great battle, after many hours of fighting, Tirian had surveyed the field and thought to himself that things did not look good for Narnia and the Narnians at all, for they were greatly outnumbered, and while the Calormenes were still holding fresh troops in reserve, all the Narnians were tired, and very few of them did not have a small injury of one kind or another.

"Alas, it seems that all is lost. If only Aslan were here, I am sure He might yet save the day," thought Tirian. He waited a moment, both to catch his breath and because he hoped that perhaps Aslan might show up after all, but while he succeeded in the first, the second failed to happen.

As he turned to the left though, Tirian saw that while Aslan had not come, he had at least been joined by one whose company he welcomed very nearly as much in this moment.

"Sire," said Jewel the Unicorn, who was Tirian's dearest friend in all the world, "I fear that we are done for."

"My friend, much as I would it were different, I fear that you have the right of it."

Jewel bent his head. "It seems Narnia is in for some very dark days."

"And yet, one day, I am sure that Narnia will be free again, and all Narnians likewise," said Tirian. "Be it a hundred years from now, or even two hundred, I do not doubt this to be truth."

"No more do I," said Jewel. "Still, to know that the sun will rise again to-morrow does not make the night any less cold."

Tirian reached out and rested a hand on Jewel's breast, and as he did so, he imagined he felt the warmth and strength of Jewel's heart and the great love they bore one another.

"My only comfort in this moment is that at least we will die together," he said, for he could not imagine happiness in a world without Jewel.

Jewel nuzzled Tirian's shoulder, careful to keep the sharpness of his horn away from his friend's skin. "If I must die, I can imagine no greater joy than to do so in defense of Narnia and with you by my side. However, Roomwit bade me tell you that the stars have foretold great evil to befall Narnia were you to die here to-day, and so you see that you must not."

"Well," said Tirian. "If the Calormenes would wish to parley, you may be sure that I would hear them, but as they have all but won already, I see no reason why they should and besides, I had much rather die with honor than be known forevermore as the king who surrendered Narnia to her enemies."

"Sire," said Jewel, "Roomwit would remind you that while Narnia is small compared to the Calormene empire, it is not a tame country. Were you to get away from here, why, even if the Calormenes should then take Cair Paravel (which I'm sorry to say they likely will) you might yet stay free and gather friends and allies around you, perhaps even enough to win back the country. But if you were to die here, all hope must be considered lost until such a time as Aslan chooses to come to our aid."

"The idea of running away while loyal Narnians stay and fight sits very ill with me, Jewel."

"With me likewise, sire, yet this is what the stars have foretold," said Jewel.

"Bah," said Tirian, for while he normally had the greatest of respect for both Roomwit and what the stars told him, in this one instance, he felt they must be wrong, because he very much wished them to be.

And if the Calormenes had not chosen the next moment to launch another attack, events might have unfolded quite differently. As the Calormenes did attack though, Jewel snatched from Tirian's head the golden circlet marking him as king, and ran into the battle with it and Tirian, after not nearly a half-moment's thought, followed him, though they soon lost sight of one another in the fighting.

Tirian fought so well that though many tried, none of the Calormene soldiers succeeded in killing him so that by the end of the battle, they took him prisoner.

Of Jewel, there was no trace, and it would be many months before Tirian would find out what had happened to his friend.

 

Emeth, of course, knew nothing of all this. While he had dreamt of fighting with Narnians and making friends with Narnians, he had not the least desire to own one as a slave, and had he known that some of his country-men wished to own a Talking Horse only so that they might whip it any time it talked back to them or simply when the desire to do so struck them, until such a time as it might as well have been an ordinary horse, he would have been very shocked at their wickedness.

He might have moved on to the next stall, save that the merchant spotted him. 

For the better part of the day, this merchant had been lamenting his luck in having been given only a beaten and half-starved boy to sell as a slave. Even worse, the Tisroc's men had made it clear that he was expected to turn over as many as thirty crescents from his profits over to them.

"Why, anyone looking at this boy must surely see he could bring no more than twenty," the merchant had told himself. "How then should I give the Tisroc (may he live forever) half again as much as that?"

And now here was Emeth. If he looked young, then at least he also looked well-dressed and in possession of a well-filled purse.

"Most discerning of customers, most eagle-eyed of youths," said the merchant, "you honor this, my humble stall with the splendor of your regard." And he bowed, very deeply.

After such an address, Emeth felt it would be rather rude to walk away, as you might, too.

He realized that the amount of money his parents had given him would surely suffice to buy Tirian and furthermore, that he did not like the idea of anyone turning a Narnian boy into a slave any better than he had liked to see the whip marks on some of the Talking Horses.

 

If Emeth's parents were at all upset that Emeth had brought home one of the Narnians who had killed his brothers (though as yet Emeth did not know this), they did not allow it to show. Instead, they did their best to make the evening meal a festive occasion, and while Tirian, as a slave, was not granted a place at the table, at least they saw to it that he was fed and clothed and that his injuries were treated by the same doctor whom they called on themselves when they were hurt or ill.

And while you can be sure Tirian wanted to return to Narnia very badly, he also knew that he must be careful to wait for his chance. While he was doing so, he and Emeth spent a great deal of time together, until anyone who saw the two of them together might think they were brothers, rather than master and slave, save, of course, for the fact that Tirian's fair skin marked him as a Narnian, whereas Emeth's skin was dark, as all Calormenes's.

Emeth taught Tirian Calormene poetry, and Tirian told Emeth the great stories of Narnia in return, and even when Emeth's parents at last decided that the secret they had kept from Emeth ought be a secret no longer, this did not lessen Emeth's love for Narnia in general and Tirian in particular in any way.

"For, if you had met them, I am sure you would have offered them mercy - or they you, had they been proven your superior in combat," said Emeth.

"Nonetheless, I am sorry for your loss," said Tirian, rather than what was on his mind, which was that he had no doubt that he might best any Calormene in honorable combat.

Emeth remained silent for a while, and then he said, "Do you believe, I cannot think of them as dead at all. I find myself quite convinced that they are alive, only lost somewhere. In Narnia."

For a moment, Tirian hesitated, for he felt that to return to Narnia with Emeth would be a grand thing, yet to give Emeth false hope seemed despicable. "But how can I be sure it is false?" he asked himself. "For is it not true that they may have been taken prisoner or the like?"

Emeth laughed a little. "You must think me very silly," he said. "To speak so childishly."

"Not at all," said Tirian, relieved, for this was nothing but the truth. "And if you were to want to go and look for your brothers to know for certain whethere they are alive or dead, I would be very happy to go with you and help you as well as I might. Visiting Narnia by yourself might be rather dangerous, but in my company, I am sure you would be perfectly safe."

"I do not doubt it," said Emeth. "And then, after, would you accompany me and my brothers to here, our home, to be my friend forevermore?"

"You know that I would like nothing better," said Tirian, looking at him.

Emeth met his eyes and sighed. "Yet you would stay in Narnia nevertheless, and we might never see one another again, save in our dreams and memories."

"Perhaps, once you have seen Narnia, you might love it well enough to stay also," said Tirian.

"Perhaps," Emeth said, but he did not sound convinced.

 

While Emeth was realizing that in order to find his brothers, he might need to resign himself to losing someone who had become as dear to him as any person could be to another, Emeth's parents were perhaps not quite so ignorant of the goings-on as he thought, even if they did not quite know everything there was to know, such as Tirian's true identity.

"Of course, it is only to Emeth's credit that he would wish to see his Narnian home again, and free. He is your son, after all," said Harpa Tarkaan to his wife. "He cannot but have your kindness."

"Naturally, he would never be so selfish as to keep the boy here only because he has come to love him like a brother," said his wife. "His courage and honor are like yours, beyond reproach."

And so when Emeth came before them and told them that he was determined to go to Narnia and would not be denied, they smiled first at each other and then at their son, and told him that nothing would please them better than for Emeth and Tirian to visit Narnia, provided they both promised to be careful and not do anything foolish, which both Emeth and Tirian promised readily enough.

 

You might be disappointed to learn that nothing of any particular interest occured during Emeth and Tirian's journey to Narnia, even though it took them quite a long time.

Certainly, Emeth would have been a little disappointed by how boring it was to spend day in, day out looking at nothing but sand. However, as you may have discovered for yourself once or twice, the most boring and monotonous trip cane be made a delight and a pleasure so long as you have a friend with you, and so it was for Emeth and Tirian.

It seemed to them that they never ran out of things to talk about, and when they did not feel like talking, they might keep quiet and enjoy knowing that they were in the company of someone who loved them as well as they loved that person in return.

As he lay staring up at the stars one night, Emeth asleep beside him, Tirian wondered what had happened to Roomwit, and all the other friends and allies he had left behind in Narnia.

(I am pleased to say that both he and you will find out the answer to that question very shortly.)

 

As it had been nearly a year since Narnia had been conquered by the Calormenes, you might suppose that the Narnia Tirian returned to looked nothing at all like he remembered it, but then you would be wrong.

The Calormenes had had a great many plans with Narnia, for where Calormen was bare, Narnia possessed lush forests, and where Calormen was inhabited by Men, Narnia was inhabited by all manners of beings, from Giants to Fauns and from Talking Beasts to Dryads.

However, the Calormenes soon discovered that their plans tended not to work out as smoothly as they had hoped. For example, the wood-cutters sent to Lantern Wastes reported that they kept getting hit by falling branches. On top of this, some of the wood-cutters swore that they had heard someone cry out each time they put their axe to a tree and refused to cut down any more trees, and when the Tarkaan in charge threatened to have them whipped, the other wood-cutters lay down their axes as well, because they did not at all like the thought that the Tarkaan imagined he might have them whipped as easily as if they were slaves, and furthermore, they felt that perhaps if they did not cut down any more trees, the trees might in turn stop dropping branches on them and protect them from the wrath of the Tarkaan (and while I would not go so far as to say that they were right, nor were they wholly wrong).

Some Narnians had been captured and sent to various Calormene cities to be sold into slavery, but many more had fled into the wild woods of Narnia, where the Calormene soldiers dared not pursue and so to many Narnians, it did not feel as if Narnia had been conquered at all, but rather as if the war was still going on, except that instead of big armies and large battles, now there were small groups of soldiers and little skirmishes.

"It seems like a very poor sort of war, if you ask me," said Emeth.

"Well, if the Calormenes do not like it, no-one will stop them from leaving," said Tirian, for a moment forgetting that Emeth was a Calormene as well.

He was reminded quickly enough though, when a familiar figure emerged from the woods on their left, crying, "Halt, fiend, or I will spit you where you stand!" which might sound like a strange thing to say if you are a human but I assure you is the most normal thing in the world for a unicorn to utter, provided they are in a martial mood.

"Jewel!" cried Tirian, and so great was his joy that he very nearly got himself skewered on his friend's horn as he rushed forwards to embrace him.

"Sire!" cried Jewel. "Oh! When Roomwit told me of your return, I could scarce credit it!"

Emeth moved, probably only because it is not very comfortable to stand as if you are a statue, and Jewel straightaway lowered his horn, only for Tirian to put himself in between him and Emeth, crying, "Peace, Jewel! This is Emeth, a dear friend who has saved me from the Calormenes who had made me their slave and prisoner," and if this was, perhaps, not quite the truth, at least it served to make Jewel regard Emeth far more kindly at once.

"Any friend of yours, Sire, may consider me his friend as well," said Jewel.

If Emeth's bow was a trifle stiff, I would remind you that he and Tirian had, after all, traveled quite some distance. "I am honored and pleased to at last meet the noble unicorn of whom my dear friend Tirian has spoken so well so often."

"Roomwit is alive and well, then?" asked Tirian, too eager to learn the fate of his old friend to be entirely polite.

Jewel neighed. "Oh, some Calormenes tried their best, and I'll admit one of their arrows had us all worried for a bit, but he's right as rain now, the moreso ever since he learned the news regarding your Majesty. But come, what need to stand here when I can as easily take you so that you may see for yourself?"

"Only lead the way then, dear friend," said Tirian, and this Jewel did.

 

Having run into Jewel so quickly upon their arrival in Narnia must surely be considered good fortune. To see his friend so happy lifted Emeth's heart nearly as much as arriving to a small encampment and finding it full of creatures he had only ever heard of in stories.

When he judged anyone friendly enough, he would inquire if they had perhaps heard of three Calormene brothers who looked somewhat like himself, but no-one seemed to know anything.

"Still, Narnia is not so very small that I might not find them in another part," Emeth told himself.

For his part, Tirian had far from forgotten his friend's quest, though he was no more successful than Emeth had been.

"We have sent word to other parts of Narnia, but such things take time, Sire," said Jewel.

"Do you think they might still be alive, then? Much as it grieves me, I am not at all certain that any Narnians would choose to hold a group of Calormene soldiers prisoner for so long a time, rather than setting them free," confessed Tirian. He did not wish to say that he felt it even likelier that any Calormene soldiers would be killed outright, or perhaps set to wander in the woods by themselves, with only a little drink and food, such as for any Narnian would suffice to find their way back to the road home none the worse for wear.

"If they have even a tenth the honor and generosity of spirit your friend has displayed in bringing you here, I am certain that no Narnian would willingly harm them, save what harm may come to anyone in a fair fight," said Jewel.

"I hope with all my heart that you are right," said Tirian.

 

First meeting notwithstanding, Emeth and Jewel came to love one another well enough, in no small part because of the great love both of them bore Tirian. If Jewel had known Tirian the longer, Emeth had been born as Man rather than Unicorn, and so he might love Tirian in ways that were not available to Unicorns, though Jewel did not at all experience this as a cause for unhappiness.

"Why, there is nothing and no-one in the world that might make me wish to be anything other than what I am, which is a Unicorn," said Jewel.

"Of late, I have found myself sometimes wishing that I were born Narnian," Emeth confessed, for though most people he met were quite polite and friendly, a few had taken an instant dislike to him due to the color of his skin.

"But then you would have never been able to save his Majesty," Jewel pointed out. "So you see, it would not have done at all for you to have been anything other than what you are."

This sounded very wise to Emeth. "Truly," he said, "it must be Tash's will that has brought me here."

"Well, I wouldn't know about that," said Jewel, diplomatic for once. "Though if it is true that he's brought you here, I suppose he's a fine enough being."

Emeth chose to be likewise diplomatic and spoke no more of Tash, instead making to ask if perhaps any news had arrived to-day, but before he might ask, Jewel flicked his ears.

"Someone's coming! If I do not mistake his tread, it is Roomwit."

 

It was indeed Roomwit, and the news he brought was momentous.

"Aslan!" Tirian could barely believe it. "He is coming at last?"

"There can be no doubt, Sire," said Roomwit. "All the stars are agreed. He will come and drive off those Calormene villains, and then Narnia will be free once more."

"You could not have brought me more joyful news," said Tirian. "Aslan! To think we lived to see this day!"

All throughout the camp, people and beasts rejoiced at the news. Only Emeth did not, though he tried to make it so that he was glad to see everyone else so happy.

"Because, after all, Aslan is not for me, nor would I wish Him to be," said Emeth.

"Aslan is friend to all those who are friends to Narnia," said Tirian. "Oh! Only think, in another week's time He may be here! Is it not the best of all possible things?"

"My dear friend, my heart might burst at the sight of your happiness," said Emeth, and if Tirian noticed, as he surely did, that this was far from Emeth agreeing with him, he chose to pretend that he hadn't.

 

The next weeks, news of Aslan's approach came ever quicker and nearer, though accounts varied. A badger reported that He was traveling only in the company of eight Kings and Queens, while an eagle claimed He was accompanied by an entire army, and a weasel had only see a group of archers.

All agreed that whatever was approaching had set the Calormenes running, though. The encampment where Tirian and Emeth and the others were staying was somewhat out of the way of the most important roads, but when they travelled only a few hours they might observe the traffic, and quite a lot of it there was.

Emeth spent quite a lot of time observing the travellers, but none of them were his brothers and so he very nearly came to despair of ever finding them, until the day when Aslan at long last arrived.

 

"Do you think He will be very angry with me, Jewel?" Tirian wondered. "After all, it was my fault Narnia fell."

"What great nonsense!" said Jewel, who had just polished his horn for the sixth time in as many minutes. "You might as well expect him to be angry with you for having befriended a Calormene!"

For a moment, these words had the opposite effect of what Jewel had intended, but then Tirian recalled all the many happy hours he had spent in Emeth's company and how honorable and kind and generous Emeth had always been, and he was reassured.

And so it was with a light heart that Tirian stepped out of his tent to at last meet Aslan.

 

What happened next is so well known that a hundred years from now, people will probably still talk about it, without even having read a single history book.

The eight High Kings and Queens took up residence in Cair Paravel after it had been rebuilt and ruled wisely and happily for many years, leading in Narnia's Second Golden Age.

Emeth was reunited with his three brothers, who had discovered that they liked wood-cutting much better than soldiering and so had spent several months in the quite pleasant company of the Dryads of Lantern Waste, and you can be sure that they were all three of them rather ashamed to hear that their parents had thought them dead.

Tirian and Jewel accompanied Emeth upon his journey home, to tell his parents that all was well with both him and his brothers, and while there are a great many stories of where they went next, I am afraid I cannot tell you which of those stories are true and which are only made up. If you want to know, you will have to decide for yourself which to believe.


End file.
